Soccer-Moyes baffled by Bournemouth's 'killer' equaliser

Reuters Staff

3 Min Read

LONDON, Dec 26 (Reuters) - West Ham United manager David Moyes admitted he was mystified after referee Bobby Madley overruled his assistant and allowed a last-gasp equaliser by Bournemouth’s Callum Wilson to stand in Tuesday’s 3-3 draw on the south coast.

Wilson’s 93rd-minute effort was initially flagged for offside by linesman Simon Long but Madley, after a lengthy chat with his assistant, allowed the goal to stand despite the ball also appearing to have gone in via Wilson’s arm.

Moyes felt his side had been denied two valuable points that seemed certain after two late goals by Marko Arnautovic.

“When the linesman’s flag goes up you think ‘we’ve got out of jail there a bit’,” Moyes told reporters.

“But to overrule the linesman’s decision, I couldn’t believe. I think you could question the offside, because it looks pretty level.

“But what you can’t do is question that the Bournemouth player (Wilson) put it in with the top of his arm. When I saw the commotion I thought there was no way he would overturn it.

“I think he said the assistant referee only put his flag up to draw attention to it, and I’ve never heard of that ever.”

Goals from Dan Gosling and Nathan Ake had put Bournemouth ahead after James Collins had headed the visitors in front.

“We’re disappointed because we’re in the dying minutes and we’ve got ourselves 3-2 up,” Moyes said. “We’d fought back although we weren’t great throughout all of the game.

“We showed great spirit to get back in it and then to lose a goal like that is a killer.”

A point leaves West Ham hovering just a point above the relegation zone and, after an encouraging run of displays which brought victory over Chelsea and a draw with Arsenal, Moyes knows his team are still in the thick of a survival battle.

“We have to get back on the training ground and see if we can work on a lot of things,” he said. “We showed great spirit and great energy to stay in the game, but we’ve got to defend much better than we have done today.” (Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)